Mounted search and rescue

[MSAR Maintainer <msar@ibiblio.org>]

Jeff Ezell wrote:
>I have a 24 y/o TN Walking Horse mare with a parallel experience. 

Sorry to hear that, Jeff!  The good news is oldsters can come back,
all is not lost.

>What did you do to get yours back within 100# and how long did it take?

Her recovery program started 3 months ago.  She had been in a row
of pens of fatties on a diet of grass hay, with a pen companion. 
Under short rations, her companion took to biting her and chasing
her off her feed pile even though they were given two feed piles
well spaced.  So first thing I did was move my mare to a separate
pen, by herself, and point out her condition to senior management
of the facility (who were properly aghast).  They switched her to
a very nice alfalfa grass mix plus Equine Senior.  Meanwhile I
found another place to board her, much closer to home, so I can
spend more time with her.  The new place is a community stables,
an un-supervised do-it-yourself operation.  (My options are very
limited by local geography!)  Now she has a 50x70 foot dry dirt
paddock (this is arid New Mexico) and a roomy enclosed shed.  She
naps in the shed, and her food and water are in the opposite
corner of the paddock, so all day she goes back and forth across
the paddock.  A month ago I started feeding her a mostly alfalfa
hay with some grass.  She had been getting 2 quarts of Equine
Senior per day;  I cut that way back, and give her extra flakes
of hay instead.  Of course, I had her checked out by a vet, inc.
her teeth.  All okay there.

Alfalfa is a high-calorie, high-protein feed.  Protein is slightly
higher than carbohydrates in calorie value, but the purpose of a
high-protein diet here is to allow her to restore lost muscle mass
as easily as possible.  She lost muscle largely because she was
starving;  once her fat reserves were gone, her body began using
up her muscles (protein) for calories to maintain life.

Her exercise regime now, apart from walking around her paddock,
has consisted mostly of hand walking and hand grazing.  Also, I
free-lunge her at a trot or canter in her paddock or a roundpen,
just enough to work out some of her elderly-equine stiffness.  I
can do all of that while wearing or keeping an eye on my baby.  
Once or twice a week we go for a ride (without the baby), mostly
walking, for at least an hour.  She has also been out for some
moderate hill walks lasting 6 hours.

        Una Smith
        Santa Fe County Sheriff's Posse, in New Mexico